Surveillance footage of the suspect that witnesses reported jumping into an SUV outside a Safeway store in Oakland, before the vehicle drove off with an elderly man and a 13-year-old girl inside, police said.

Photo: California Highway Patrol

Surveillance footage of the suspect that witnesses reported jumping...

Image 2 of 11

Surveillance footage of the suspect that witnesses reported jumping into an SUV outside a Safeway store in Oakland, before the vehicle drove off with an elderly man and a 13-year-old girl inside, police said.

Photo: California Highway Patrol, Courtesy

Surveillance footage of the suspect that witnesses reported jumping...

A shopper walks past a police cruiser with his groceries while authorities investigate a reported carjacking at the Lincoln Square shopping center in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. Police say an armed suspect reportedly carjacked a red Infiniti SUV with an elderly man and a teenaged girl inside.

Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle

A shopper walks past a police cruiser with his groceries while...

Image 5 of 11

Police officers set up a command post in a church parking lot next to the Lincoln Square shopping center where a possible carjacking may have occurred in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. Police say an armed suspect reportedly carjacked a red Infiniti SUV with an elderly man and a teenaged girl inside.

A police officer talks on his phone while investigating a reported carjacking at the Lincoln Square shopping center in Oakland, Calif. on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2014. Police say an armed suspect reportedly carjacked a red Infiniti SUV with an elderly man and a teenaged girl inside.

An Amber Alert was issued Tuesday after witnesses reported seeing a knife-wielding shoplifter jump into an SUV outside a Safeway store in Oakland, before the vehicle drove off with an elderly man and a 13-year-old girl inside, police said.

The incident happened at 12:50 p.m. in the parking lot of the store at the Lincoln Square Shopping Center at 4100 Redwood Road, northeast of Highway 13 at the edge of the Redwood Heights neighborhood.

Officer Johnna Watson, an Oakland police spokeswoman, said the man had caused a disturbance inside and tried to steal items from the store, but he did not appear to know the victims.

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Police said the assailant threatened to stab a witness with a knife that had a green handle. The witness told police that the occupants of the vehicle yelled that they didn't know the man and that the assailant forced the driver to pull away.

The vehicle was described as a red 2001 Infiniti QX3 with California license plate No. 6JFM648, which was last seen driving southbound on Redwood Road. On Tuesday night, police said the plates may have since been placed on a red four-door sedan, the make and model unspecified.

The kidnapping suspect was described as a 35-year-old black man, 5 feet 7 and 165 pounds, with salt-and-pepper hair. He reportedly wore a green shirt, blue jacket, blue jeans and headphones.

Police said they had to assume the incident was a stranger abduction. But they said none of the victims - potential or otherwise - or their family or friends had come forward to police.

"The information that we have received is that the occupants do not know this suspect," Watson said.

Police set up a command post at an adjacent church. An Oakland police helicopter flew in the area, searching for the sport utility vehicle and giving information over a loudspeaker.